New Survey Finds Nearly One-Third of Respondents Have Experienced Sexual Harassment or Assault While Climbing

Catcalling, verbal harassment, unwanted touching, following and kissing, flashing and rape—these are the forms of sexual harassment and assault women and men said they have experienced while climbing, according to a recent survey.

The survey was administered last spring by #SafeOutside, a new grassroots initiative that aims to combat sexual harassment and assault in the climbing and outdoors communities. More than 5,000 people took the survey and 31.2 percent said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault in a climbing environment.

The survey was spearheaded by a group of climbers, including Charlie Lieu, an MIT-trained data scientist and operational strategist who has been climbing for nearly 25 years and is on the board of the Access Fund. About eight months ago, Lieu had learned about multiple instances of sexual harassment and assault in the climbing community, but the victims were too afraid to come forward and speak openly about their experiences.

“I had been one of those people who said ‘What's the big deal? This is the way things are—you gotta get tough and learn to set boundaries.’ But listening to these stories, hearing the pain, the fear, was a wake-up call. I started to understand why [sexual harassment and assault] is a big deal. This has been happening for as long as I could remember, but people are too scared or ashamed to say anything,” said Lieu. “I realized if we don't do something, the next generation is going to live through the same experiences. And that is not OK.”

When broken down by gender, 47.3 percent of women and 15.6 percent of men said they had experienced one of those forms of sexual harassment or assault. Although, when asked directly if they had been harassed or assaulted, only 23.8 percent of all respondents answered yes. Fifty-four of the respondents—42 women, 11 men and 1 respondent who didn’t identify their gender—said they had been raped. Those numbers are likely low estimates as about two out of three incidences of sexual assault go unreported, studies show.

“What we’re talking about here isn’t sex. We’re talking about violence. Violence happens to men and it happens to women,” said Dr. Callie Rennison, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver who is an expert in policy and criminal justice and victimology support. “So this isn’t a women’s problem that women need to fix. This is a problem of all people, and we all need to get together to fix it.”

The #SafeOutside online survey was distributed between last April and July by a coalition of media publications and organizations, including the American Alpine Club, Flash Foxy, the Access Fund, and Alpinist, Climbing and Rock & Ice. Most of the respondents who opted into the study were from the United States—California and Colorado, especially—and Canada, as well as Mexico and Australia. The organizers behind #SafeOutside released the survey’s results today, partnering with a spectrum of climbing and outdoor media, to publicize the findings and draw awareness to issues of sexual harassment and assault.

“The whole goal is to create a safe place for people to talk about their experiences and to spur action from the industry and sport leaders in order for us to start addressing these issues,” said Lieu, who is spearheading #SafeOutside and initiated this survey with Rennison. “#SafeOutside is a response within the outdoor community to a bigger social movement, which is #MeToo,” said Lieu. “We are taking it one step further though, by providing tools and policy work.”

The #SafeOutside survey responses were submitted by women (48.3 percent), men (49.2 percent), those who identified as agender (0.1 percent) and those who did not identify their gender (2.4 percent). They were trad, sport and gym climbers, but Rennison and Lieu kept climbing definitions flexible to keep the survey accessible. Rennison said that they intentionally framed the questions so that former climbers would participate in the survey. “There is a group of people who were active climbers and stepped out because of experiences like this. It was important to hear their voices,” Rennison said. On average, participants had been climbing regularly for 9.4 years.

The most frequently cited types of harassment in the survey were catcalling, verbal harassment and unwanted touching, though it was common to experience more than one form. Nearly 60 percent of the women who reported having been harassed said they had experienced more than one type.

A margin of error was not calculated, as the survey organizers collected a convenience sample (comprised of those who saw notifications about the survey and chose to respond) rather than a representative sample (a group that accurately reflects the greater climbing population). Rennison and Lieu acknowledge the results represent only a small portion of climbers nationwide. In 2017 in the U.S., more than 2 million people participated in sport climbing/bouldering and more than 5 million participated in indoor climbing, according to the 2018 Outdoor Participation Report.

In addition to specific questions, the survey also provided space for users to write free-form comments. The 998 comments collected in the survey illuminate what sexual harassment and assault can look like for climbers. Respondents described people climbing into tents uninvited, groping and unwanted kissing, and being assaulted at home, at work or while visiting climbing friends. The incidences of sexual assault also included attempted rape and being raped while on an expedition at camp. For those climbers who rejected sexual advances, some said the perpetrator retaliated physically. Others said they had been followed from the crag. In climbing gyms, respondents described customers asking them inappropriate and vulgar questions about sex. Sexism, including fat shaming women and hostile comments on social media, was also evident based on the responses.

These types of sexual harassment and assault happen throughout the climbing world, but the gym is a “key location,” the survey said. The responses also identified perpetrators, including “famous climbers or sponsored athletes, brand ambassadors, friends, acquaintances, climbing partners, customers of gyms/expeditions, coworkers and complete strangers.”

After experiencing sexual harassment and assault, 45.4 percent of respondents—and 54.5 percent of women—said the incident changed the way they climb. Some victims reported isolating themselves. Respondents said they were less likely to talk to people they didn't already know at the gym or the crag. They stopped going on climbing trips. They expressed hesitation to speak up, out of fear for retaliation but also because their concerns were often downplayed or dismissed.

“This is a data point and it’s a really important data point that shows whether it’s half of all women who responded or one incident, to date there has been an unchecked part of the culture in climbing in which people feel unsafe or harassed,” Deanne Buck, executive director of Camber Outdoors said. “When we think of what it means to be a climber, we think about conservation, technical skills and safety. But can we also integrate the fact that we look out for each other beyond that? Can we look to make sure that all of our fellow climbers feel safe, included and welcomed?”

Equipped with data from the survey, Lieu is already working with individuals and companies to develop effective policies and protocols that are designed to stop sexual harassment and assault.

Lieu has also been in contact with some of the victims who shared their identities and their experiences, making sure they have support and resources. “It’s hard, right? As anybody who has any amount of empathy, if you listen to these kinds of stories, eventually you just start crying with them,” said Lieu.

Listening, believing and genuinely validating someone’s experience goes a long way toward healing, says Lieu. But we also have to educate ourselves and our community on the actions to take when we see harassment and assault taking place, or hearing about it happening.

“Honestly, nothing is ever going to change unless everyone gets together,” says Rennison. “It’s not just going to be people who experience [sexual harassment and assault], who answer surveys and who share numbers. It takes people who haven’t experienced it, but maybe witnessed it or are hearing about it, to step up and go stop it.”

To learn more about #SafeOutside and how you can support the movement to stop sexual harassment and assault in the climbing and outdoors industries, visit their website.

How do you respond when someone tells you they have been sexually harassed or assaulted?

#SafeOutside says to start by listening and believing. Some great things to say are: “Thank you for trusting me with this”; “I believe you, it took a lot of courage to share this”; and “Can I connect you with someone who can help?”

If you see an instance of sexual harassment and abuse, or you hear about it happening, #SafeOutside says to intervene—direct, distract, delegate and delay.

Direct: Step in directly to intervene, whether speaking out or giving social cues.

Distract: The perpetrator and remove the victim from the area. Then, report the incident.

Delegate: See something inappropriate? Talk to someone with more social or functional power than you have and ask them to step in.

Delay: Check in with the victim of the incident after it has occurred to see if you can do anything to help them. You can say, “Hey, are you OK?” or “Can I do anything?” Then, report the incident.

In addition, if you have been a victim of sexual harassment or know someone who has, there are resources available to you:

While born in the 1980s, Downtown Julie Brown is not the MTV star of that era. She is a skier and lover of the outdoors based in Reno, Nevada. A former editor at Powder, she is the mountain bike editor for the Co-op Journal. REI member since 2010.

The surveyors are honest about their methods, and the results are as comprehensive as you could reasonably expect from a poorly-funded operation. The sensationalist headline and reporting isn’t their fault.

I’m wondering what percentage of the reported harassment occurred in gyms? I’m not a gym climber and have not personally seen or heard of that type of behavior outdoors, although I’m not disputing that it could occur. I suggest that a gym vs outdoor breakdown might lead to a better understanding of this type of unacceptable behavior.

The survey organizers did not calculate the percentage of reported sexual harassment and assault that occurred in gyms. However, the qualitative data collected from the survey suggests that the gym was a “key location” where sexual harassment occurred and/or where contact was initiated that ultimately led to assault. I hope this information helps.

Although not involved with the survey, I wrote “A Note on the Methods” that is published with the original Alpinist article, explaining why those methods were necessary and appropriate for an exploratory task. Briefly, sexual harassment and assault *among climbers* is a tough topic to research, so any study will have limitations. In this case the study’s authors cast a very broad net, achieving results that look plausible and in the same ballpark as many studies of other populations. Their bottom line is that sexual harassment or assault are fairly common experiences among women in climbing, and this deserves more attention.

If someone wants to dismiss that conclusion they will do so anyway, but the methods are not a good reason.

What aspect of their methodology? It’s not a perfect data collection environment but then again, a study like this would never get funded to be performed on a wide scale. Many sexual assault surveys are dismissed out of hand for their too small sample size or their imperfect data collection, or their results are deemed arbitrarily ‘too high’ to be probable. The same thing happened for about a decade when researchers kept surveying young college women – the sexual assault incidences seemed to be ‘too high’ to be possible – so the results were regularly dismissed. This is a starting point, and yet another wake-up call. This behavior should (finally) be deemed so reprehensible by so many that this type of behavior dies out. If basic human decency is an inadequate motivator for good behavior – then maybe fear of exposure or legal punishment may suffice.

“their study wasn’t conducted with a population that is representative of the greater climbing population”
– nuff said…..if you do something, do it right or f#$$ off. Simple. If you don’t have the funding to properly attain and analyze date then move on.

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, “In the U.S., one in three women and one in six men experienced some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetime.” These figures were taken from a study conducted by the CDC from 2010 to 2012. That being said, the #SafeOutside survey organizers are transparent about the fact that their study wasn’t conducted with a population that is representative of the greater climbing population or the population of the United States. I hope this information helps!

Interesting and disturbing. I’m always uncomfortable with the lumping together of harassment and assault, however, which leads to a conflation of the actions. Let me be clear–NEITHER is acceptable. But there is a huge, huge difference from “Hey, nice butt in them yoga tights!” and full-on physical assault, yet the big percentages shown always bring both together. It’s misleading. Also, this is a self-selected response group, which is probably unavoidable, but it likely skews the rates as well.

I for one am relieved that people have finally started caring and reporting this issue. As a climber, and a victim of sexual assault for many years, it was easy to keep my mouth shut. Fear is power, especially when you’re smaller than your attacker, as most female climbers are. Being the ass end of a joke is one thing, but getting beaten because you can’t do a move or don’t have the motivation to follow orders is another. I was assaulted multiple times by this one assailant, who was my ex. We had met climbing, and were partners for years. Over that span of time, things grew from bad to worse. Because he was my partner, I trusted him (after all, your belayer has your life in their hands, right?) – which proves to be the downfall of many victims. You wouldn’t believe that that person couldn’t let go of the control that belaying gave them – they had to extend that control to all angles of life. That’s why I’m trying to say that this is real. Please be careful. I’m alive today only because someone literally had to save me. Be careful who you trust. Awful people are everywhere –including in the climbing community. The inadvertent trust we place in others could be more than an unwanted comment, or overly friendly advances. It could be violent, aggressive, and the end of your career as a climber and human. So please keep these surveys going so we can see results and progression.

These types of surveys are more than just junk, they are pernicious. If you cannot do something well, just do it poorly and collect your virtue signaling award? That is no way to solve real problems.

We all know that more men are interested in climbing than women, and you want to encourage more women to climb. How does conflating rape with catcalling help? As a female considering joining the sport, am I likely to get raped, catcalled, or complimented on my yoga pants? Those have very different rates of incidence and would affect any woman’s decision tree.

A constructive survey would make the differentiation between events in a manner that provided context and relativism (as opposed to expanding the victim pool and sensationalizing the headline). We already know that rates of violent crime are less on public lands than in urban areas. Do climbing dominated areas fall in line with these already known statistics? More or less? is your attacker known to you? If you do not bring your abusive husband/boyfriend to the crag with you, the incidence of sexual assault plummets to XYZ%. Is sexual harassment more or less likely to happen in gyms or on public lands? Was the harassment in conjunction with an employee/employer or employee/employee relationship (there are established channels for redress)? Compared to other sports, a motivated female might become involved in, do rates of harassment or assault compare favorably or unfavorably?

You should not have accepted this. You should have demanded better work, that can provide better understanding, and path towards solutions.

Interesting Article. It is good to see REI Adventures mention the problem of Sexual Harassment in this Coop Journal Article. Because, to be honest, as far as I can see there is very little mention of policies or protocols regarding sexual harassment anywhere else on their website. REI Adventures encourages single travellers on their trips and in fact organise women only trips. The aim seems to be that they want to convey the impression that somehow group travel is safer when travelling alone. To some extent this may be true but what happens when there is an instance of sexual harassment on a trip? What are the policies, procedures? In my experience the practice seems to be close your eyes, cover your ears and hope the problem goes away!